On the turbulent $α$-disks and the intermittent activity in AGN

Abstract

We consider effects of the MHD turbulence on the viscosity during the evolution of the thermal-viscous ionization instability in the standard $α$-accretion disks. We consider the possibility that the accretion onto a supermassive black hole proceeds through an outer standard accretion disk and inner, radiatively inefficient and advection dominated flow. In this scenario we follow the time evolution of the accretion disk in which the viscosity parameter $α$ is constant throughout the whole instability cycle, as implied by the strength of MHD turbulence. We conclude that the hydrogen ionization instability is a promising mechanism to explain the intermittent activity in AGN.